Brooke's Note: Most of us hear the words "human financial advice" and it brings to mind dizzyingly high payrolls. But what if that presumption isn't entirely right? It would be ironic if a robo-advisor helped reinvent the way human advice is dispensed -- on an as-needed basis in chats where the clients don't inconvenience the advisor and vice-versa. You could argue that chat advice isn't gold standard advice. True enough, but it might seem pretty platinum for people who signed up to get robo-asset allocation and ended up getting much more.

With just 12 licensed financial advisors, Betterment is rolling out fiduciary financial advice to most of its 280,000 customers without raising its price.

The New York-based robo-advisor, which manages $9.7 billion of assets and has a dozen certified financial planners on staff, will deliver the advice exclusively by means of the messaging feature on its mobile app. Customers can expect an answer within 24 hours with allowances for the advisors' 40-to-50 hour week.

The announcement of the launch from beta comes today and a few days after the company announced it had raised yet another $70 million, again led by Swedish company Kinnevik AB. But the two events are not directly related, as the addition of chat-based advice is not expected to increase overhead operating costs much, according to Betterment spokesman Joe Ziemer.

Previously, the 12 advisors on staff were aboard to help "Premium" and "Plus" clients who paid extra for the added service. Betterment CEO Jon Stein, a CFA, is also licensed to give fiduciary advice and does so on occasion, largely as a means of learning about investor "pain points" firsthand, Ziemer adds. Stein is not a CFP. Betterment has 280,000 clients, according to Ziemer. The firm's ADV, dated this month, lists 208,900 clients.

No more 'Plus'

CEO Jon Stein, who is a CFA, still gets on the horn to clients to dispense advice.

As part of its rollout of this new messaging feature, Betterment announced that it is doing away with its "Plus" advice program, which charged 40 basis points but allowed an annual phone call with a human.

Betterment's RIA clients will not have access to the chat advice but a version of the chat technology may be provided to RIAs in the future, says Alex Benke, vice president of financial advice and investing at Betterment, who is overseeing the launch.

The three-tier system is giving way to a more streamlined two-tier set-up, Benke adds.

The structure of the program allows advisors to efficiently allocate their time in order to answer more questions. But Benke insists that it's also more efficient for the investor who can ask the question then check back for the answer at their own convenience.

Expect more firms to tinker with their admixtures of automated and human advice -- now that preferences of human investors become more apparent, says Cheryl Nash, president, investment services, at Fiserv.

"Consumer expectations are helping to shape how investment advice is delivered, and the mix of digital and human interaction is something we will continue to see more of across the industry," she writes in an email. "Firms will need to identify what services their clients value the most and are willing to pay for, and determine how they provide those services; whether digitally, via human interactions or both. I don’t see a future for pure robo advisors that don’t add the human element to the mix."

Prior to joining Betterment in 2012, Benke worked at J.P. Morgan Chase for 10 years in credit markets and risk technology. He is a CFP with a degree in operations research engineering from Cornell University.

Money comes a-calling

Betterment says that the $70 million it recently received came out of the blue.